Generally, example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to hardware accelerators, and more particularly to providing a method, system, and computer program product for streaming attachment of hardware accelerators to computing systems.
General purpose processors like Intel®, AMD® and IBM POWER® are designed to support a wide range of workloads. If processing power beyond existing capabilities are required then hardware accelerators may be attached to a computer system to meet requirements of a particular application. Examples of hardware accelerators include FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), the IBM Cell B.E. (broadband engine) processor, and graphics processing units (GPUs). Hardware accelerators are typically programmable to allow specialization of a hardware accelerator to a particular task or function and consist of a combination of software, hardware, and firmware. Such hardware accelerators may be attached directly to the processor complex or nest, by PCI-express (peripheral component interconnect) IO (input-output) slots or using high-speed networks, for example, Ethernet and Infiniband®.
Given the large number of attachments points available within computing systems and wide-range of performance characteristics of hardware accelerators, it may be advantageous to automatically provide guidance as to where particular types of hardware accelerators are attached within a computing system in light of the availability for closer placement of accelerators to memory and/or processing units. For example, an attachment hierarchy may include attachment points available within a computing system. However, some problems with general attachment solutions include the lack of automatic guidance for accelerator placement along an attachment hierarchy of a computing system and possibility of performance over-provisioning when arbitrary attachment of accelerators to attachment points is performed.